Outdoors - Report Card Time

This past Saturday was the annual meeting for Hunter Safety Instructors held in Ballston Spa and hosted by the Saratoga County program director, Mr. Bill Schwerd and his fantastic staff.

Thanks to them and their efforts, we had a great day of meetings topped off by an equally great lunch. Thanks to all of them.

At this meeting, the statistics covering the past hunting season were distributed. This past year, in my humble estimation, was pretty good although maybe not to the four people who lost their lives hunting across the state. Four! That's four more than we would like to see and can only hope that our education program continues to have a positive effect within our sport.

This past year, we had a total of 29 "incidents." That's down from 37 last year and 35 the year before. Not bad and moving in the right direction. More importantly, NONE, that's in like zero, incidents were reported as big game hunting-related and NONE, as in zero, were reported in the 14 and 15-year old big game hunting ages allowed by the Youth Hunter Mentoring Law passed last season for the first time in New York State.

What concerns me is that within the total of 29, there were 15 self-inflicted and of these 15, at least seven were injuries to the hunter's foot and primarily, the right big toe. So I am going to make a recommendation to the DEC that next year, we try to pass a law that says every new hunter has to have his or her right big toe amputated prior to hunting season. If we could eliminate these goofy self-inflicted incidents, the total number would drop to a record breaking low level.

Another hunter shot himself in the pinkie finger, another in the leg while trying to put his gun in his pocket. Yet another incident was, and I have to quote this one to be sure you don't think I make this stuff up, "Victim said shooter fired three shots in his direction while he was trespassing on the neighbors' deck!" And catch this, "no injuries reported." If this clown was trespassing on my deck, you can bet your next paycheck there would have been an "injury reported" and it wouldn't have taken three shots.

Every year when I read this report, I am amazed at some of the things it contains. The only conclusion, and I hate to say this, is that there are certain people in the world who just shouldn't be allowed out of the house. Some people should be classified as pets and fed from a bowl twice a day and left to guard the driveway. I suggested to a number of my fellow instructors that we start an annual "S" award and that "S" doesn't stand for smart if you know what I mean.

Overall, what is encouraging to us is the continued positive effect the training program has had since its beginning. For example, back in the 1960s, the average number of incidents was 140 per season. In the 1970s, it improved to an average of 102. So far in the 2000s, we are averaging 40 incidents per year. I think that's a pretty good performance. If we could just keep those right big toes out of play, we would really have something to crow about.

What this report does not provide are the number and types of incidents and deaths relating to tree stands since these don't involve or are not directly related to the handling or mis-handling of a firearm.  In our definition, rifles, shotguns, hand guns and bows and arrows are all considered firearms. Falling from a tree stand doesn't count, at least not for this report.

However, in the United States, every year there are more than 300,000 hunting incidents relating to tree stands resulting in an average of 5,000 deaths or crippling injuries.  That is one major reason that last year's Youth Mentor law specifically says "no hunting from an elevated position," as in a tree stand. 

So, keep your feet on the ground youngins and keep your right big toe out of your line of fire.

See you outdoors!

You can reach Dick at rtotino@nycap.rr.com.